Pat McAfee will return to ESPN’s “College GameDay” this fall, he announced in a video posted Wednesday.
🚨BREAKING🚨 pic.twitter.com/gosfIzCo9A
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) July 24, 2024
McAfee, after indicating in October that he might leave “GameDay” following the 2023 season, said late last year that he would return to the program but entered the summer without a deal to make that official. McAfee has a separate contract that allows ESPN to license his daily “The Pat McAfee Show” on its network and YouTube.
The former West Virginia and Indianapolis Colts punter turned media personality is well aware of the harsh criticism his presence on the long-running pregame show drew from some college football fans. He said Wednesday that he questioned whether it was worth his social media mentions blowing up on Saturdays with tough comments, and he referenced an Athletic reader poll last year in which 48.9 percent of respondents said they don’t like him on the show.
“Obviously, The Athletic poll came out last year and like 50 percent of the people were like, get this guy the hell off of ‘College GameDay,’” McAfee said. “I’m a ‘College GameDay’ fan. I enjoyed waking up on Saturday mornings and watching the show that propels us into college football Saturday and inevitably into NFL Sunday. For those people to have a terrible morning because of my existence was certainly something that weighed very heavy on this here dumbass sports dude’s heart.”
McAfee’s energy has proven very popular, especially with Kirk Herbstreit and at many ‘GameDay’ stops from Alabama to James Madison. But he faced heavy blowback from fans last season over comments about Washington State. WSU head coach Jake Dickert and former quarterback Ryan Leaf got upset when Lee Corso appeared to call the Wazzu-Oregon State game the “No One Watches Bowl,” although some people thought Corso said “No One Wants Us Bowl.” In response, McAfee defended Corso and told Washington State to “shut up” when the show highlighted the 292nd consecutive appearance of the Cougars’ flag on ‘GameDay’, noting ‘GameDay’ had long celebrated the program when it struggled on the field.
“It was an actual decision based on … mostly do I want to sign up to hear in my mentions how terrible of a person I am by people who will never understand what type of human I am?” McAfee said Wednesday. “Is that what I want to sign up for? We’re doing OK everywhere else. Every time I thought about it, I thought, I get the opportunity to do this. I need to do this. We can put this conversation to bed.”
“GameDay” is also set to add newly retired coach Nick Saban to its returning roster of host Rece Davis, Desmond Howard, Kirk Herbstreit, Corso and McAfee.
Required reading
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
